Devotions

The psalmist writes the following about one of God’s greatest promises: “If his sons forsake my law and do not walk in my judgments, if they break my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then I will punish their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my lovingkindness I will not utterly take from him, nor allow my faithfulness to fail” (Psalm 89:30-33, NKJV).

God promises to never remove his lovingkindness from us, no matter how badly we may fall. However, many believers skip lightly over the heavy warning in this verse. If we forsake God’s law and refuse to keep his commands, he’ll visit our transgressions with his divine rod.

The Bible tells us that whomever the Lord loves, he chastens. We see this truth illustrated vividly in David’s life. Consider how the Lord dealt with this man, a faithful servant who enjoyed God’s favor. At one point in his life, David sinned awfully then justified it and kept it hidden for months on end. Finally, God said, “Enough” and sent a prophet to expose David’s sin. The prophet Nathan used an analogy to tear apart every excuse David had until finally the king admitted, “I’ve sinned. I’m guilty.”

David wrote, “For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away” (Psalm 31:10). Like a hole in the oil tank of a car, your sin will slowly drain you of all peace, joy and strength.

I know Christians who lead lives of utter confusion because they continue to indulge in sins. These hollow souls are always downcast and weak, forever struggling but getting nowhere. If you harbor a secret sin, you’ll experience continual disturbances in your life, home, family and work. You’ll become increasingly restless, confused and tossed about by endless worries and fears. All of your peace and strength will be drained from you.

God does not want to expose his servants; rather, it is in his heart to forgive, cleanse and cover our sins. In love, he will discipline his righteous one, but his rod is for the lawless. Exposure of secret sin is God’s last attempt to save a rebellious, hypocritical child who has determined to indulge in sin yet play the part of a spiritual man. God’s rod is reserved only for unrepentant, hardhearted believers.

God doesn’t want your home, car, furniture, savings or any of your possessions. All he wants is your faith, your strong belief in his Word. That may be the one thing that other, more spiritual-appearing people may lack. You may look at another person as being more spiritual than you, but that person may actually be struggling hard to keep up an appearance of righteousness.

As God looks at you, he declares, “There is a righteous man or woman.” Why? You’ve admitted your helplessness to become righteous, and you’ve trusted in the Lord to give you his righteousness. Paul tells us we are accounted as righteous in God’s eyes for the same reason Abraham was. “Therefore ‘it was accounted to him [Abraham] for righteousness.’ Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead” (Romans 4:22–24, NKJV).

You may claim, “I believe this. I have faith in the God who resurrected Jesus.” Despite this, the question for you is “Do you believe the Lord can resurrect your troubled marriage? Do you believe he can bring to life a spiritually dead relative? Do you believe he can raise you up out of the pit of a debilitating habit? Do you believe he can erase your cursed past and restore to you all the years the cankerworm has eaten?”

When everything looks hopeless, when you are in an impossible situation with no resources and no hope before you, do you believe God will be your Jehovah Jirah, seeing to your every need? Do you trust that he’s committed to keeping his eternal promises to you? Do you believe that if even one of his words fails, the heavens would melt and the universe collapse?

So you’ve turned everything over into the Lord’s hands. You believe in his promises to keep you, protect you and cause you to walk uprightly before him. You state, “I believe God’s Word. If he says I’m his righteousness, it’s his job to make it so in my life. I may not have arrived yet, but I know it’s not my job to make that happen. It is the Lord’s. I know that by his Spirit working in me, he’s going to get me there.”

“’Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? “Father, save me from this hour”? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven: ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’” (John 12:27-28, ESV).

At a pastors conference in one of the former Eastern Bloc countries, God had put it on my heart to speak on the purpose of suffering in the Christian life.

Approximately 1,000 pastors were in attendance, and the message I was about to share was one that I had battled with beforehand. “Lord, these men and women suffer already. Why can’t I bring a word of encouragement or talk about some kind of blessing instead?”

Nevertheless, on the first day of the conference, I went ahead and preached what I knew the Lord had given me, only to be met with a silence that was almost eerie. When I was finished, the pastors in that room simultaneously fell on their knees and began to weep. Initially, I thought, Oh God, I’ve brought more despair to their hearts when I should have encouraged them!

After the meeting, one of their leaders approached me and essentially said, “Pastor, you don’t know what has happened today. All this time, we thought that God was angry with us…. We watch television programs from your country and get the impression that if we are children of God, we should be wealthy and abounding.”

At that point, I realized that they had actually been weeping for joy. They finally understand that what was happening in their lives was not God’s punishment. On the contrary, he was preparing them to be able to withstand trials in the days ahead.

Many disillusioned Christians do not make this connection. They reach a point in their trials where they feel wronged, betrayed and abandoned. Then they begin to question God’s commitment to them and cry out, “God, you have failed me!” God has not failed them. They failed to go beyond the surface of Scripture to learn what it really means to walk with Christ. They failed to embrace the truths that promise to sustain those who are determined to walk in the footsteps of their master.

No matter what adverse circumstances you find yourself in today, be thankful that the Lord is bringing you into places of fire where everything unlike Christ is being purged. He is working out his purposes in your life and fitting you to represent him in this generation.

^{Carter Conlon joined the pastoral staff of Times Square Church in 1994 and was appointed Senior Pastor in 2001. In May of 2020 he transitioned into a continuing role as General Overseer of Times Square Church, Inc.}

Because God loves you, he will work to cleanse you. You may feel God’s arrows in your soul because of your sins, but you can call upon his chastening love. You will not feel his wrath as the heathen do. The Lord’s rod of discipline will be applied by a loving hand.

Perhaps your suffering comes from making wrong decisions. How many women are suffering because they married men whom God warned them not to marry? How many children are breaking their parents’ hearts? Many times this happens because of the parents’ own past years of sin, neglect and compromise. When you have arrived at this lowest point, you can seek the Lord in repentance and faith.

When you cry out to God, he pours his strength into you. “In the day when I cried out, you answered me, and made me bold with strength in my soul… Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you will revive me; you will stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand will save me. The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; your mercy, O Lord, endures forever” (Psalm 138:3, 7–8, NKJV).

Christians struggle most to accept the suffering of the righteous. Up to the time of Christ, the Jews associated prosperity and good health with godliness. They believed that wealth and health were because God was pleased with you. Likewise, there is an erroneous doctrine today that says, “If you are in agreement with God, you will never suffer! Just call out to God, and he will come running and solve everything immediately.”

This is not the gospel. The heroes listed in the Hall of Faith all walked closely with God; they still suffered stoning, mocking, torture and violent deaths (see Hebrews 11: 36–38). God wants to plant something in our hearts through our trials.

The Lord wants us to be able to say, “Lord Jesus, you’re my Protector. I believe you rule over the events of my life. If anything happens to me, it’s only because you allowed it. Help me understand the lesson you want me to learn. I trust that you may have some prepared glory and eternal purpose in this that my finite mind doesn’t understand. Either way, I’ll say, ‘Jesus, whether I live or die, I am yours!’”